Bottom line up front: In my informed opinion, this press conference presented a true and accurate accounting of what happened to the ammunition in question.
As many of you know, my unit did similar ammunition removal operations to those described by MAJ Pierson at the Pentagon press conference today (though not in the same area). As he was speaking, I realized he commanded the facility that we hauled both US and captured Iraqi ammunition from and to. Everything he's describing is consistent with my experience. I toured his captured ammunition holding area (CAHA) as part of our preparation for that mission. It was huge. It was later destroyed by a fire as he describes because White Phosphorous ammunition gets very volatile when left exposed to the weather. We lost several trucks to WP rounds getting mixed in with the HE and cooking off. At the CAHA, they had a special pit (two to three stories deep) to handle WP rounds that cooked off, but since the WP was mixed with the high explosives, the fire started. It happened in other CAHAs as well. In fact, if memory serves, a CAHA controlled by the USMC went up the same week Dogwood blew.
I guarantee that right now folks are digging through the records of our reports of our captured ammunition hauling operations to find all references to explosives (as opposed to ammunition). Those reports will take a while to get through, but they'll get through them. I bet every soldier in Pierson's unit is being sought out to be interviewed by investigators, too. The Major probably didn't handle a lot of the ammo himself, but his soldiers will have handled it all.
I notice from the press conference that the press weanies are looking for every excuse to discredit or diminish his unit's efforts in defense of our country.
Remember the terrorists that tried to claim THEY took the ammo? Who do they want to win this election? Who does CBS, NYT, and NBC want to win this election? Who do you believe?
I don’t really know whom to believe, but I knew that something stunk about this story from the start (starting with the timing), and Ralph Peters wrote a great column in yesterday’s NY Post explaining how. The socialists have been running “October Surprises” since last year, which is why this race is so tight, in the first place, and Qaqaa was just the newest variety.